1. Field of the Invention
The invention broadly relates to equipment to improve the play of golf on a golf course. More particularly, it concerns indicator device by which golfers before playing the hole of a golf course will know the tee marker location, pin placement on the green, pertinent distances and other play aspects for that particular golf hole.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Proper administration and management of a well operated golf course involves the periodic movement of the cup to various positions around the green to prevent the excessive wear that would occur if the cup constantly remained in one spot. Tee-off positions are also varied from time to time to prevent excessive wear on the tee and vary play with change in course conditions.
Changes in cup and tee-off positions can significantly affect the manner in which golfers will play a given hole on a given day. Players seek to visualize the hole as to its length, the placement of the cup (pin) on the green, its relationship to traps and other hazards. To assist players in such playing activities, some golf clubs provide in their club houses pictorial representations of their course with the various greens, using markers to roughly indicate location of the cup on the green. Of course, unless the player marks such information on a card or the like, he is not likely to remember such details during much of his play of the course. Player uncertainty about cup position and similar information often leads to delays in play and a resulting decrease in the day's capacity of the course.
Various innovations have been made to provide golfers with course information to assist in their play of the course. This has included unique course maps or card representations of course layout (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,552,290 and 3,805,411). Another innovation involves providing at each tee location a relief model of the green for that hole, having a marker that can be moved about to indicate position of the cup on the green (see U.S. 3,685,168). Such a device, however, fails to provide the player with tee to cup distance for the day, visualization of the green relative to the remainder of the hole, etc.
There exists a need for improved ways for golf course managers to better provide play information desired by the players in an efficient and player acceptable manner. This would not only serve to enhance the enjoyment of play by the golfers, but play will be speeded up and course administration improved.